Companies that sponsor Web sites typically have one or more live Web servers from which the Web site is served to visiting Web browsers. When changes or additions to these Web sites are developed, the new material is usually deployed first on one or more staging Web servers where the material can be reviewed and approved by authorized personnel. Companies generally consider the content developed for their Web sites to be confidential information to be protected against public disclosure until it is ready to “go live.” For this reason, the staging Web servers are usually separate and independent from the live Web servers and are typically located behind the company's firewall to restrict access to the material. Usually, only authorized individuals will have access to the staged content on the staging Web servers in order to review and approve the staged content. Once approved, another party or develop or may then transfers the approved material from the staging Web server to the live Web server.
While this method provides a systematic approach to developing and testing Web content in a relatively safe environment, small or medium-sized companies may not have the resources to have a second, totally separate Web server for staging content. Moreover, some of these small or medium-sized companies may have third-party Web hosts hosting their Web content. In third-party hosting situations, the companies may not even have the ability to physically access the Web server itself, let alone, its own content on the Web server. While the companies would be able to access their Web content by browsing to the Web server over the Internet, this type of access does not generally allow for any modifications to the underlying Web files. These small to medium-sized companies are, therefore, left with the choice to either review material in static Web development environments or hire third-party developers to completely develop and stage the new material.